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Singapore Airlines has resumed flights to San Francisco, one of the longest non-stop flights in aviation.

The new service serves San Francisco twice daily. These flights are the longest in the Singapore Airlines network and among the longest in duration in the world.

Depending on winds, direction, and time of year, your flying time between northern California and the south-east Asian city-state will be between 14 1/2 and nearly 18 hours. That rivals other longest-of-the-long-haul flights by other airlines: the same San Francisco to Singapore route on United Airlines that also just launched, as well as other carriers' flights from Toronto to Hong Kong, Dallas to Dubai, and New York to Johannesburg.

In a double milestone, the plane to make this trip also happens to be Singapore Airlines' sixth Airbus A350-900 – the 10,000th Airbus delivered to the company since 1979.

Singapore Airlines ceremoniously took delivery of the plane this fall from Airbus and flew it from Toulouse, France, to the West Coast for the San Francisco-Singapore service. The same aircraft is being used for Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, and Johannesburg long haul flights.

You'll be happy to hear it has an extra-wide body, and other features that make the flight easier, like higher ceilings, larger windows, and lighting to reduce jetlag, along with technological advances and superior operating efficiency that benefit all 253 souls flying in the plane's three classes, with 42 in Business Class, 24 in Premium Economy Class and 187 in Economy Class.

Do you think that's just too long to be on a plane?

Well, for many people, that's 'just' a work day and a full night's sleep. See? Productive.

But no fun. How about this? Over the course of your flight you couldn't even get through a marathon viewing of the box set of Harry Potter movies! So, not so long after all, right?

Flights this long are broken up by a lot of food service, too. Singapore Airlines has a 'Book the Cook' service that lets some passengers plan and select your meals before your flight, so you can choose carb-heavy courses for when you think you'll be wanting to sleep, and lighter courses when you want to get some work done.

If you're still finding it hard to picture yourself on a flight this long, there are even longer ones coming down the pipeline.

In 2018, Singapore Airlines will take delivery of the first of a variation on this Airbus, the A350-900ULR, which stands for 'Ultra Long Range'. The airline is planning on using this upcoming aircraft for the world's longest non-stop flights: between Singapore and New York - tacking at least a couple more hours onto the current flights from San Francisco.

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Big Bang, Super Junior, SHINee, 2NE1, 2AM and U-Kiss –these are just some of the names that have conquered the global scene.

One thing in common with these groups though, and that is that they are Koreans. Yes, Koreans, and this worldwide trend is fast catching the attention of the youth of today.

K-Pop is short for Korean pop, and most of its titles are English; hence, increasing their reach worldwide. In contrast to American music, K-Pop songs concentrate on topics such as love, friendship and others that are age-appropriate.

In fact, three leading K-Pop groups, 2AM, ZE:A and U-Kiss, have been recognized by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) late in 2011 for their contribution to the promotion of tourism in Korea.

Frances Cha of CNNgo.com noted that as K-Pop lures, more and more foreigners travel to Korea, so the government and local entertainment companies are jumping on the bandwagon (“Harnessing K-Pop for Tourism”).

Here’s an excerpt of her article:

SM Entertainment, one of the country’s largest entertainment companies with acts such as Girls Generation and Super Junior under its label, announced last week that it had acquired BT&I, one of the largest travel agencies in Korea, as a move to increase its global content offerings. “We’re looking to expand K-Pop’s business model to include dining, fashion, accommodation and exhibitions by building on BT&I’s original tourism, leisure and travel business,” said SM Entertainment CEO Kim Young-min in a press statement.

Catch the rest of this travel news, and see how the world is indeed growing smaller with K-Pop acting as one success story.

Book your travel to Korea now, and catch the K-Pop performances live!

What difference does it make when Amadeus joins the European Commission in a tourism project?

Continue reading to learn more.

According to Breaking Travel News, Amadeus has now supported the European Commission in its intensive campaign that will look at actions to enhance the competitiveness of the tourism sector through the stimulation of the travel flow between European and South American countries ("Amadeus Joins with EU for 'Low Season Tourism' Initiative"). The pilot initiative follows up on the 2010 Communication on Tourism, which calls on the European Commission to combat seasonality, stimulate the creation of employment, strengthen the image of Europe, and cooperate with third countries.

This will be achieved by promoting travel in particular in the respective low seasons of Europe and South America, utilising the available spare airline and accommodation capacity thus benefiting the local economy of the host destinations.

On the whole, this is welcome news to the travel industry. A lot of possible changes will be seen in the near future for Europe, which will make significant developments to world travel, correspondingly.